So are Obama and the Democrats focused like a laser on jobs and the economy? Uh, no.

Here you have a lame duck Congress dominated by Democrats and a president who admits his party was “shellacked” in the midterm elections with a chance to partially redeem themselves and focus on the people’s priority – jobs and the economy – and what do they do?

Or to put it another way, they’ve chosen to double down and push their political agenda vs. heeding the message sent by American voters on November 2nd and pushing that aside to give jobs and the economy the priority.

Pure arrogance. But an indication of the fact that the administration has absolutely no real intention of “triangulating” anything or “pivoting” in any direction. The supposed “pragmatic” president shows his true ideologue colors.

This should be something the GOP captures and preserves in amber for 2012. This is precisely the worst thing Democrats could do, but apparently they simply can’t help themselves. And that shouldn’t surprise anyone. Harry Reid still presides over the Senate and what comes to the floor there and House Democrats just reelected the liberal leadership that cost them over 60 seats in the midterms.

No, I see them doing NPR and then sputtering about uselessly. Then the public says “right, nothing happening” and they get booted.
I’d bring out a piece of shock and awe – say complete elimination of corporate taxes, paid for by boosting cap gains and dividend taxes, or even better with pure spending cuts – its only a couple hundred billion.
Or cut the corp. tax by half and with the rest make some payroll tax cuts – cuts for companies and cuts for the workin’ man.
Then Obama has to veto something that was bold and could have started some growth.
You do little penny packets you might look petty or worse. Is there anything lamer than Obama’s occasional tax credit to small business plans that smell of accounting tricks?

I was going to ask, how could the people of Nevada re-elect Harry Reid? But I know how. Clark County, home of Las Vegas, has since the 80s become Little California. Californians have been flooding into Las Vegas for years to avoid California’s high taxes. Now they are hell bent on destroying Nevada same way they destroyed California.

Shouldn’t the GOP’s job be to “focus like a laser beam” on jobs, the economy, and cutting spending? If so, then there would be little need to “record and remind in 2012.”
Or,
Will the GOP “push their political agenda vs. heeding the message sent by American voters on November 2nd and pushing that aside to give jobs and the economy the priority”?

As with Harun’s line of thought… Will the GOP focus on petty issues? Banning earmarks is a good start, but as you noted, they are of little consequence. The voters expect results, not just reminders of what the other guys did or didn’t do.
Here is another good start… Focus like a “laser beam” on the newly incoming GOP majority to act as they promised, instead of the actions – like DADT (which you support) and the DREAM act (which isn’t a bad deal) – of a lame duck, already forgotten, Democratic majority.

Shouldn’t the GOP’s job be to “focus like a laser beam” on jobs, the economy, and cutting spending? If so, then there would be little need to “record and remind in 2012.”

>>> Fair enough, but you should note that the GOP can’t actually pass anything into law since the Dems seem to control the Senate and Presidency….. an omission I see more and more frequently among certain people, almost as if by design.

…an omission I see more and more frequently among certain people, almost as if by design.

Don’t forget shark, the House controls the purse strings. And they can stop anything dead in its tracks. Including entitlement spending, an omission I see more and more frequently among certain people, almost as if by design.

Don’t forget shark, the House controls the purse strings. And they can stop anything dead in its tracks. Including entitlement spending, an omission I see more and more frequently among certain people, almost as if by design

>>> And their job for now is to stop the Obama agenda dead in it’s tracks. We agree!

In this case, I think Occam’s Razor suggest simply that most people didn’t know that. I thought I was informed about my government, I have certainly read the Constitution, and I actually just learned that a couple of months ago. I actually think that most people have not made the connection that control of the House and an iron will is enough to shut down a lot of spending.

Though the smart money is on the “iron will” being lacking, so in practice those who aren’t talking about it probably aren’t in reality as they are in theory.

If there is a stampede of people trying to get into a 2-year college and snag AA degrees, I can see bad things happening. Does this act mean that someone with a student visa could also get citizenship this way?

There are a host of issues the new congress is already debating. No time to focus like the present, huh? And do you really think that the GOP should hold onto a lame duck session in the winter of 2010 as a cause for voters to elect Republicans?
How many times have I read here that the expiration date on blaming Bush has expired long, long ago? Now you are asking the GOP to shelve the “blame Pelosi” preserves for two whole years!!!!
Do you really believe that is going to work?

Some Tea Party movement this is. I can see the ads now…
“Remember back in the winter of 2010 when the Dems controlled a lame duck congress? No??? Sure you do… the Cowboys were 2 and 7??? Still No? Prince William and Kate had just announced their wedding… Right!! Now you remember. There was some talk about DADT and the DREAM act. Yeah… That’s why you should elect us. Forget about what we promised, remember the DREAM act… NO, not the dream wedding… the DREAM act... oh, nevermind.”

Sorry to inform you of this but when you’re in the minority (as the GOP is in the lame duck session) you don’t have control of the “purse strings” and, in fact, you don’t even get to decide what makes it to the floor of the House for a vote.

There are already provisions for expediting the citizenship process for those who serve in the military.

“All immigrants who have served honorably on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces or as a member of the Selected Ready Reserve on or after September 11, 2001 are eligible to file for immediate citizenship under the special wartime provisions in Section 329 of the INA.”
Only one year of active duty is necessary. http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/immigrationnaturalizatio/a/milcitizens.htm

If they’d just pass a resolution saying they were going to not f*ck around with economics and regulation for the next two years, and then stick to it by doing things like pushing DADT repeal and the DREAM act, that would be more “focusing on jobs and the economy” than I expect from them.
I don’t want them to “do something about the economy” other than leave it alone and stop screwing it up; regulatory uncertainty and the uncertainty about what half-cocked stupidity the State will try next to “save us” are probably more damaging than the underlying problem.
I suspect we’d see more improvement from that than from them actually “focusing on the economy” by passing clueless pork-laden bills (or even non-pork-laden ones).

That would also be a good idea. But not enough if you ask me. We need to “pop the clutch” so to speak. I don’t want to live through Japan’s decades of lost growth.
Since they have to face Obama, the Senate, and the MSM, I would stick with a plan that I outlined above – something big, 50/50 on corporate and payroll, paid for by a large swathe of spending cuts and freezes. Obama rejects it, of course, but he can’t claim its “just cuts for the rich.”

In light of the shenanigans of the TSA, the ban on deadly-dangerous-oh-my-God-they’ll-kill-you-dead alcoholic energy drinks, QE2, and now the apparent refusal of the Congress to extend the Bush tax cuts, how long before American Revolution v2.0?

The point is taken, Bruce. That said, consider how much worse things would be if the democrats were actually focusing like a laser beam on the economy. After all, everything that they have actually focused on has turned into a major screw up for the past two years.

Bank raises reserve ratios to stifle inflation
The People’s Bank of China said on Friday it will raise the required reserve ratios for banks by 50 basis points from Nov 29 – the fifth such increase this year – in a move aimed at strengthening liquidity management and further tightening credit.